The Infamous Trio
This is about another fiasco involving what should have been a simple matter.

Due to some dietary complications which I won't go into here, it became necessary for us to purchase a pressure cooker. This unfortunate chain of events began early this year. There had never been such a gizmo among our collection of useful food preparation equipment. In fact, I must admit, there had always been a slight apprehension of having such a dangerous high pressure device here in an occupied dwelling. But times change, and necessity is necessity. And so one evening my Sweet Thing and I zipped on over to the K Mart. We had both seen these things in use in our younger, more innocent days, and thought we knew what we were looking for. Well, as one has come to expect, what we were looking for was not, in fact, there. However, we did find something that was referred to as a "pressure cooker". This was made in a foreign country which was once under the thumb of a great European empire. After some study, it was determined that what set this contraption apart from what we had in our minds as a "pressure cooker", was the addition of a few features that were most likely added to enhance it's safety. Well, safety is a good thing, I suppose, but so is simplicity. Too many moving parts are not always a good thing. However, since this was the only thing in the whole K Mart that bore any resemblance to what we needed, we went for it.

Time has an ability to reveal things, and it didn't take a lot to do it. The handles kept getting loose, various plastic parts broke, and inferior sealing rings (on the "safety" features) crumbled and leaked. (This, by the way, is the cooker on the far left.) It became obvious that this wasn't going to work out very well. Having internet access, the obvious thing seemed to be to go online and find a replacement. So with high hopes in modern technology, we launched into hyper-space searching the World Wide Web for a simple, low tech, pressure cooker. There are a lot of these things out there, but we finally found what we believed would be just what we wanted. No bells, no whistles, just a simple stainless steel pressure cooker. It was even made in a "European Country". I suppose P T Barnum was right, although I hate to admit it under these circumstances. Well, they got our money, and our pot was shipped to us. In truth it seemed to be everything we had hoped for, simple and functional, although the directions in an unknown language did give us some pause. (This would be the one in the center.)

Unfortunately, in this "European Country", there must be a steel shortage. After using this thing a few times, the flimsy locking lugs began to stretch, and the gasket would no longer seal. Being the resourceful fix it type guy I am, I took a crescent wrench to the thing, and bent the lugs back into a position that enabled it to seal once again. This became an every day thing. Not good.

On the right you will see a third pressure cooker. In a fit of frustration, we finally sought out that great American Institution, Sears & Roebuck. I wish I could report that this brand name cooker reestablished the superiority of american technology and quality, but alas, it seems to have been made in an asian country. There is also the fact that we haven't tried it out yet. Yet it seems to be well made and not overly complex. Maybe this time things will work out and we will be 1 for 3 .